Using the Hawaiian Keyboard & Fonts in One Program (like Word)

(Windows XP)

To be able to type the kahakō and ʻokina in a particular program, you have to follow these simple steps:

1. Open the program.
2. When you have focus on the window (when it's selected in the task bar), left-click on the language bar (the little keyboard down in the task bar), and change the current keyboard setting from "English (United States)" to "US (HI Fonts)".
3. There are now six special key combinations:
   1. ALT + a = ā

   2. ALT + e = ē

   3. ALT + i = ī

   4. ALT + o = ō

   5. ALT + u = ū

   6. ALT + ' (apostrophe) = regular English apostrophe 
      (the ' key by itself will type an ʻokina)

4. But unless you're using one of the special HI Fonts, they won't look like āēīōūʻ. They'll look like äëïöüÿ. To use one of the HI (Hawaiian) Fonts, you'll have to use the program's font settings to change your current font.

5. The HI Fonts (available as both ASCII and Unicode) are

   1. HI Kakuhihewa
   2. HI Keawe
   3. HI Manokalanipo
   4. HI Pi'ilani
6. Remember, these settings will only work with the program you've enabled them for. If you change to a different program (including just using the desktop), you will have to change the keyboard settings again if you want them to work in that program as well.

Using Hawaiian Letters on the Web

If you're typing something in Firefox or Internet Explorer (like an email, a personal message, or filling out a web form), then this solution won't work for you. The letters might show up correctly on your end, but on the other end the computer probably won't have the HI Fonts installed, so they'll see "äëïöüÿ".

To let other people on the Internet see these letters correctly, just type (or copy & paste) these codes whenever you want to use the matching letter: 

You can also just copy & paste the actual letters above.

These characters may not appear correctly on all computers, but they should work fine on most computers. For more information on alternatives, see the Wikipedia pages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okina and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahako

 Changing the Default Input Language to Hawaiian

(Windows XP) 

1. Right-click on the language bar (the little keyboard down in the task bar).
2. Select "Settings".
3. Up at the top of the "Text Services and Input Languages", change the "Default input language" drop-down box from "English (United States) - US" to "English (United States) - US (HI Fonts)"
4. You'll still need to use one of the HI Fonts in your program for the letters to show up correctly.

 Please note that this will make your apostrophe key type "ÿ" in all your programs which don't support HI Fonts.